Congressional leader faults La. officials on recovery, Landrieu accused of faltering on housing

nola.com ^ | 06/04/07 | Michelle Krupa

[TornadoAlley3]

CHICAGO -- A key congressional supporter of federal financing for Gulf Coast rebuilding efforts expressed a lack of confidence Sunday in the ability of Louisiana's leaders to direct the state's recovery and accused U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu of failing to push certain critical post-disaster housing measures.

U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, a Los Angeles Democrat who convened hearings in New Orleans in February to examine the housing crisis, suggested that she will support giving the Road Home program more federal money only if officials in Washington, D.C. -- not Louisiana leaders -- take charge of spending it. State officials have estimated shortfalls for the program ranging from $2.9 billion to $5 billion.

Echoing comments made earlier this week by U.S. Rep. William Jefferson, D-New Orleans, Waters also said she and her colleagues have lived up to their pledge to support disaster recovery and added that Congress would have to take a close look at the Road Home program, much maligned for its spending practices and laggard pace, before funneling any more federal money into its coffers.

"The federal government has not been stingy," she said. "The federal government has not been resistant to providing money for the recovery of New Orleans."

[LibLieSlayer]

Having lived through Katrina in a direct hit in Mississippi... we have ALWAYS known that the State of Louisiana is 100% responsible for every Katrina related failure that occurred and still is occurring two years afterward!

LLS

[TornadoAlley3]

Any Republican challenger named to run against Landrieu?

[VaRepublican]

And this is not main stream news?not on cnn.com,not on msnbc at least not front page. Sooooo just move along nothing to see here.

[rod1]

Guess the blame Bush speeches are not drawing big enough crowds these days.

So LA has virtually all RATS politicians in leadership positions and they screwed up the recovery. It’s not rocket science to figure out what went wrong.

[rod1]

Knowing Maxine Waters, she probably meant to had say it was Bush’ fault. However, when she blanked on the name and asked the nearest person on the podium who was in charge, they replied “Well Moon’s baby, Mary Landreiu, of course”.

[TornadoAlley3]

What have they done with the money?

Taking her own shot at state officials, Waters said she’s not convinced that the projected Road Home shortfall is real. Noting that top executives of ICF International have earned millions of dollars in performance bonuses since Blanco hired the company for $756 million to manage Road Home, Waters said she is not convinced that state officials are running out of federal money intended for the program.

[HChampagne]

Living here in Louisiana, I know that getting things done and getting money distributed do not rely on following proper processes and following the law, but rather on “who you know” and on your particular location in the pecking order. This is the way things are done in Louisiana at every level of government.

[upchuck]

If you go read the article and work your way through the mentioned interlocking tangle of government bureaucracies I hope you, like me, come to the conclusion that our Imperial Federal Government is just too damn BIG.